Assassin's Creed Shadows Review

SCORE - 9/10

It has long been claimed that the Assassin's Creed saga suffers, from time to time, from creative stagnation. In the previous cycle, what was unheard of in Origins had already worn out in Valhalla and, once again, Ubisoft had to rethink its plans to introduce its most popular franchise to the then "new" generation of consoles.

Maintaining its original proposal to portray the end of the Sengoku period with the overthrow of the warlord Oda Nobunaga in his violent attempt to unify all of Japan under one flag. Featuring the real historical figure of Yasuke, the famous "black samurai", and featuring Naoe, an original kunoichi for the narrative as protagonists, Shadows is certainly a great game, but one that stumbles on its own novelties of the reformulation of the mechanics.

As with so many other stories in the franchise, Shadows brings a narrative of revenge with Naoe chasing mysterious samurai who were responsible for the extermination of his province in Iga that culminate in significant family tragedies. At the same time, Yasuke finds freedom by becoming one of the most important assets in Oda Nobunaga's guard, who continues to expand his unification under violent conquests.

Although the story takes time to get going, focusing much more on Naoe at the beginning of the adventure – also giving the impression of having content cut from Yasuke to avoid further controversy in the post-launch, it is impressive the organic way the story is told, featuring very charismatic characters such as the boy Junjiro and so many other partners that the duo will be able to tell throughout the story.

If we were to compare, there is a mixture of narratives with clear characteristics to the cinema of Akira Kurosawa with The Seven Samurai and Yojimbo with Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films, both in the refined aesthetics of both authors and in the logical structure of each story. Along the way, Naoe and Yasuke meet several allies who can join the League they both found in 1579 while pursuing the many targets of the evil secret order – the Templars in this story.

The narratives in general are good, but nothing that will really impress hardened players. There is a specific high point involving the union of Naoe and Yasuke splashing on another supporting character, in a very cathartic and dramatic scene that elevates the story. It's a lot of fun to recruit allies who, after joining the League and living together in the hideout, can also be activated to help the player in moments of combat.

The story also reserves a good dose of twists and turns and evolves different proposals for each protagonist. While Naoe has a very clear goal of revenge and justice, Yasuke just feels that he must be close to her to discover a new purpose in his life. It is curious that the samurai is much more charismatic than Naoe, making jokes and having a particularly better written and engaging dialogue to the player.

In the end, Yasuke is one of the best things about Shadows – and this only highlights a much more significant defect of the game that I will detail shortly. Ubisoft is also right to direct much of Naoe's development into flashbacks available in secondary meditation activities that reward you with wisdom points, vital to unlocking new abilities.

The side quests are also smarter at exploring more of Japanese culture, topography, mythology, and some tales. They engage and bring good fun that, for sure, is light years away from the narrative doldrums of Valhalla. Here, Shadows is much better

One of the biggest complaints from fans and critics about Valhall was the complete annoyance that it was about the immense and irrelevant skill tree that the player had to improve Eivor. This being the main problem of the previous game, it is with joy that I say that the developer thought much more carefully and affectionately about the six skill trees available to each protagonist.

With the division inaugurated in Shadows, I believe that the next games in the saga should have two playable characters: one focused on stealth gameplay much closer to the original games of the saga – here, in this case, it's Naoe, and another tank character for direct combat hack n' slash consecrated in the previous trilogy – in this case, Yasuke.

Any player will quickly understand that the things Naoe can do, Yasuke often can't – and vice versa. One of the most frustrating limitations is not being able to make the synchronization points with Yasuke, and several of them are on top of huge pagodas that are only accessible through the hook that the ninja uses to assist in exploration.

At the same time, many of these pagodas are in castles filled with strong enemies that are much easier to deal with while playing as Yasuke. Naoe is fragile and will always prefer an indirect approach, committing well-timed assassinations while sneaking through the game's beautiful detailed backgrounds. Soon, the forced switching between characters ends up tiring over time – it was simple to solve this by allowing Yasuke to also be able to fulfill all the synchronization points on the map.

He is much slower, noisier and more violent than Naoe, making the gameplay a stealth approach with the character quite unfeasible. So far, so good, as it is a mechanical proposal of the game to be able to reach the two audiences of the franchise – the old players and those who came from Origins.

As the game, in structure, is still an RPG, the level system certainly makes the experience more complicated for players in a hurry to close the story, as it is necessary to invest a lot of experience in the characters to be able to survive combats against enemies with a few levels above – in a very absurd difference, even Yasuke ends up dying in one blow.

Fortunately, grinding is not as annoying as before due to the diversity of side quests and fun activities such as painting fauna in relaxing situations or exploring ancient temples to earn wisdom points – with each tier of knowledge, the player unlocks new skills that do make a lot of difference in the gameplay, including new moves and the possibility of double assassinations.

The combat is also the most visceral in the franchise, also featuring three varieties of weapons for each character, each with unique abilities, masterfully mixing the two playthroughs of Assassin's Creed pre and post Origins. I'm really impressed by this for the talent in serving the two audiences of the saga effectively.

The same is true of the size of the map, which is much leaner than Valhalla's, getting closer to Origins, with a very good cadence of new places to explore, whether Kyoto or Izumi. Each macro-region of the game features a distinct topography, fauna and flora, in addition to significant level jumps, pacing the pace of the game. Fortunately, it never becomes boring even after ten hours of play, bringing memorable battles and intense moments to the heart of the game – something I only remember happening in Assassin's Creed 2.

The game also features an immersive mode, set by default, hiding mission objectives on maps, encouraging the player to use their shinobis to do field reconnaissance and explore the map further. Personally, I've never had a problem with the clear objective orientations that the games tell, so it may be that many people find it interesting – I found the possibility welcome, but very frustrating due to the difficulty of finding the objective in the middle of dense villages.

Since the Japanese region is traditionally mountainous, it's also a good idea to stay on the roads as dense forests can cause visual pollution when entering them to find shortcuts. It's good for the use of the horse, which despite the controls being horrible, takes you faster to the destination. The game also features the same hideout enhancement mechanic, with more focus on decoration. It's functional and fun, players who love these customizations will be well rewarded.

In exploration, in terms of the new mechanics of changing seasons, only in winter do we have a big difference in mobility, making it difficult to cross the map. For the rest, it is really an aesthetic issue, varying more the climate and coloration of the art direction with the flora reacting appropriately to each climate. It's very beautiful, in fact, the game itself is beautiful as a whole.

I witnessed rare visual bugs, no progression issues, and only one crash during my experience with the game. The only thing that remains problematic is the artificial intelligence of the enemies that varies from very intelligent even noticing you on top of buildings to very dumb running hysterically from one side to the other taking turns with other enemies to attack you. It's very weird and too comical.

Another good feature of the postponement was to refine other mechanics with good accessories to improve Naoe's gameplay, which relies on shurikens, smoke bombs, distraction bells and kunais to create good opportunities – real-time lighting is also vital to be able to fight in the shadows, with the ninja destroying poles and lanterns at various times – it's just kind of annoying to find the right chests to retrieve health supplies and tools (they do not appear frequently on the radar activated when pressing L2).

Another point that deserves a lot of attention is the musical score that delivers several very well produced themes, the main one being intrinsically connected to Naoe's narrative. In key moments, there are excellent songs that give a certain anachronism, but that elevate the style of the action to a more "Tarantinesque" factor as I had said before.

The same goes for the original dubbing that uses Japanese and Portuguese talents to ensure greater immersion for the player. The actors are great, delivering performances worthy of great Japanese productions, giving identity to each character who, despite not distinguishing themselves so much in visuals, have an excellent job in this regard.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is a great game. For the saga, the best ever delivered in years for a main title – I've never been a fan of Valhalla and Odyssey for the repetitiveness, I admit. Here, the story flows better, the pace of the game is good, it presents a fair challenge, in addition to bringing more interesting secondary activities to do to enter a culture as rich and beautiful as the Japanese.

Naoe and Yasuke's story was never meant to be faithful to the story of what actually happened to the Sengoku period, after all, that was never the franchise's proposal – historical fidelity, after all, for God's sake, has an entire game centered on murdering the Borgia family – as much as some were, in fact, Murdered. The point is that historical fidelity has never been the driving force of the saga and would have no reason to exist now around the debate involving Yasuke.

I had a lot of fun playing Shadows and, I admit I was surprised, because it's been a long time since a game in the saga has been able to really entertain me. To me, that's what matters most when reviewing a game, whether it's fun or not. With so many games resembling work more than fun by bringing so many repetitive activities, it's good to have a successful example that manages to dose progression and fun well.